The Milwaukee Bucks knew something like this would come sooner or later.
Lately, opposing defenses have adopted a strategy to defend Milwaukee, which involves leaving new forward Kyle Kuzma wide open on the perimeter and daring him to fire away. Kuzma has never been a consistently reliable shooter, so it's a risk teams have been willing to take. It allows the other teams to focus more on slowing down Damian Lillard or Giannis Antetokounmpo, which is problematic for the Milwaukee Bucks, who have been stuck in the mud enough offensively lately.
Tuesday night's matchup against the Golden State Warriors provided hope that Kuzma can indeed make an impact in this role, at least in spurts.
Bucks' Kyle Kuzma knows he must make defenses pay
In the first half against Golden State, Kuzma didn't exactly thrive in this role. He was 2-of-6 from the long line. Per NBA.com/stats, all six of those triple tries were "wide open," meaning Kuzma had six or more feet of space to shoot. The looks were there; Kuzma just couldn't capitalize, and the Bucks were struggling as a result, trailing at the break.
Immediately after the break, something clicked as Kuzma had a great quarter. He matched his entire first-half total with 11 points, and it largely came from him shooting 3-of-7 from downtown. He was far more successful on his wide-open looks in this period, going 3-of-5 on them. With defenses begging for him to shoot, Kuzma made them pay, and the Milwaukee Bucks got back into the game.
In total, he finished with 22 points on 5-of-13 shooting (38.5 percent) from deep. Those numbers are certainly good enough from Kuzma, but the Milwaukee Bucks couldn't pull out the win because simply everyone else struggled. Antetokounmpo had 20 points on a putrid 5-of-16 shooting. Meanwhile, the star point guard, Lillard, had 16 points on 18 shots. Hard to win any game when the stars play like that.
The Bucks suffered a 104-93 loss, which stings even more when considering that Stephen Curry sat out due to rest.
Kyle Kuzma's perimeter shooting might be Milwaukee's biggest X-factor on offense moving forward. When that shot is falling, the Bucks can look like the team they were in the third quarter against the Warriors, where they outscored them by 12 points. When it's not, they might be the team that was down by 14 points at the half. Kyle Kuzma making open looks could change everything.
Stay tuned for more Milwaukee Bucks analysis.